After three seasons in the Swedish Rallycross Championship, culminating in a fourth place finish in the 2400 class in 2019, Martin Ekspjuth has decided to switch from his Subaru Impreza to tackle RallyX in the Supercar Lites class. After two “learning” campaigns in 2021 and 2022, the driver from Piteå is now ready to take it to the next level.
Only 13th in the overall standings in 2021, Martin Ekspjuth was able to show one of the strongest progression of the 2022 season last year when he managed to take seventh place in the category.
However, despite a first podium finish on the Riga track during the fifth stage of the RallyX championship, Martin admits that his Supercar Lites debut was not an easy one.
“Our first season in 2021 in the Supercar Lites category wasn’t fantastic, but we learned a lot from it,” says Martin.
“Whether it was in terms of set-up where we were able to test as many options as possible or in terms of driving, we were able to get a good insight into what we would need to put in place to perform in 2022.”
Unfortunately for Martin, the first four races of the 2022 championship did not exactly go according to plan between Höljes and Kouvola.
“We entered the 2022 championship with quite high ambitions as I felt we had found the right adjustments to allow us to play the top positions but, unfortunately, from the first round of the championship in Höljes, we were immediately slowed down by engine problems. After that, the problems became even more serious in Kouvola. Finally, we were able to put everything back in order for the Riga event and this finally allowed us to show what our true speed was.
And the difference was obvious for Martin Ekspjuth. From an average of 5.2 points scored in the first four races of the 2022 season, the Piteå driver will conclude the last three rounds of the championship with an average of 20.3 points.
In addition to a podium finish in Riga and two wins in qualifying heats, Ekspjuth concluded the last three races with a top three finish in each of the intermediate classifications. Something to make Martin more confident.
“It’s always good to see that I can fight for the podium now. I have to admit that it wasn’t easy to get into this category. I was coming from a Swedish championship where I was used to play the top positions and I didn’t think that my transition to Supercar Lites would be so complicated. This was particularly clear on tarmac sections where I had more difficulty than expected in keeping up with some of my competitors coming from Karting. We had to work harder than we expected to get results that would be in line with our goals. Nevertheless, I think we have come a long way now. We now have the speed and I hope that we can start 2023 with the same momentum that we ended 2022 with”.
In other words, it is with the desire to take another step towards the pinnacle of the Supercar Lites category that Martin Ekspjuth looks forward to this new season.
“Of course, like my rivals, the objective is to win the championship. I think we have what it takes to be in the top positions. In any case, we will do everything we can to achieve this. We will approach the races one by one and we will see where we can be at the end of the championship”.
